Jim Myers

00:00Welcome, welcome, welcome. We are going to start off this show today, and we are going to talk about GoTab. What is GoTab? So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take some frequently asked questions and I'm going to go over them with what is GoTab. So GoTab provides a contactless, easy to use system for you and your guests to place, fulfill, and pay for orders. Guests can use their personal devices to order and pay, and their state of the art system makes managing your menu and fulfillment orders simply. They do not charge outrageous fees for the other third party services, and they let you control your system directly, which is kind of amazing. So does GoTab replace my POS system? No. GoTab system is designed to be both an integrator and a standalone service. So they do have full POS capabilities, but it also works with most legacy systems. Do you need to buy hardware? No. Hardware is not required.

01:00They're going to try and use all of your existing receipt printers, tablets, and KDS systems. There's some pretty amazing stuff. They allow digital wallet and Apple Pay. The staff receives the orders in several ways, digitally through a receipt printer or within your POS system. It is so, so easy. One of my favorite things because we do our own delivery is GoTab creates pick tickets, manages drivers, and creates delivery routes. Delivery drivers can use their GoTab account for both navigation and SMS communications with your customers. So if you wanted to make that leap, you wanted to make the leap, and I want to start doing my own to go on delivery. Later on in this episode, you're going to hear me and Jim Myers talk about a new opportunity that's coming about that we're going to start here at Nashville Restaurant Radio. Actually it's with New Light Hospitality, but it's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to do a class. We're going to show you how to do this. I'm going to bring some money back and put it into your pockets. And GoTab seamlessly integrates with what we're doing.

02:03So they're just an amazing company. They're brand new, and they're not brand new, but they're a new company. They're all over the West Coast, and they have a special deal for you. You need to go to gotab.io forward slash en forward slash nrr. From there, you'll have a landing page that you can sign up for a free demo. By being a Nashville Restaurant Radio listener, you're going to get $500 if you do need to buy hardware. If there is hardware that you want, anything you want at all, you're going to get $500 of your first bit for free. They did that. I said, look, they offered me, they said, do you want every time somebody signs up, we'd love to give you some money. And I said, no, you pass that back along to the people. I want to show value to the people. However, do not go to just gotab.io. Go to gotab.io forward slash en forward slash nrr. It is worth $500 to you if you do that. That's not a gimmick. You can go look on their website. You can't get that. That is only for our listeners. So I'm excited to turn that on to you, gotab.io forward slash en forward slash nrr.

03:07This is a brand new technology to Nashville. You need to jump on it today. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host coming at you on a Monday, baby. Yeah, it's a Monday. Are you ready to go out there and take this week by storm? Hell yeah, it's Monday. Let's go. I am pumped, shot out of a cannon today because we are talking to Jim Myers and Jim Myers is, besides being one of my favorite people, we talk about it as Joe. He's kind of a newer friend and he's just we could talk for hours and hours and hours.

04:10We actually forgot to take a picture and I said, hey, maybe tomorrow can we take a picture? And he said, yeah, I said, I'm going hiking. You want to go with me? So we brought our dogs and we talked for another hour and a half and it was so much fun. In this end, you're going to learn all about the Elliston Place Soda Shop, but just so much more. His storytelling from the history of Nashville. He's so eloquent and so just such a beautiful man. And I'm excited to share this interview with you. I want to tell you guys a story. This is not this is just a personal story of greatness that sometimes greatness happens. I don't know where I'm going with this story. I just thought I would tell it because I thought it was freaking hilarious. We we all work in restaurants, so Mother's Day is not a day that we typically get to spend with moms or spouses or anybody because we're always working. Right. So we have a thing in our house that, you know, hey, honey, I got to be at work all day. It's a very busy day and I'm gone the majority of the day. So we do Mother's Day the week after Mother's Day, which this year was last weekend.

05:12And I decided that she'd been talking about going to Sound Waves at Opryland for a really long time. And I was I looked online. They've got a Davidson County special or is a national. If you live in Nashville, you can get a discount to stay there. It's not really a discount. Still expensive as hell. But the point is, I was just really excited to get the wife and kids there. So we go we're going to do the Sound Waves. We've got the room and it's not cheap, but we're there. We park in its valet and all this stuff. And I get to the place and I said, hey, man, we're checking in. And if you had a room that like had a balcony in the Cascades, I think that'd be really could you, you know, could you think of an upgrade? You know, we're trying to help this out. And he goes, yeah, man, let me check it out. Let me see what you got. And he starts searching through the thing. And I'm I'm fairly lucky with hotels and people hooking me up with with upgrades and goes, you know what, we do have a room in the Cascades with a view. It's great. It's on the third floor. Would you like that room? And I went, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I also have a parlor, you know, parlors.

06:15That's a room that has like, you know, the living room. And I think, wow, does it have a balcony? He's like, yeah. And I go, OK. I mean, yeah, that sounds good. It's great. The parlor is like one seventy nine extra. And they're in the Cascades is going to be seventy nine dollars extra. And I'm like, I mean, listen, that's like is that the equivalent of, hey, man, make the drink strong, you know, me asking for some sort of an upgrade? I don't know. I'm kind of a jackass. But so I said, you know what, man, I just feel like I paid so much. I was like, you know what, don't worry about it. It's OK. We'll just take the room. What room is it? That's a standard room, two queen beds. It's facing the parking lot. I'm like, hey, the parking lot's a good view. No, it's really not. So my kids walk up. Dad was taking so long. I said, I'm working on it, buddy. I'm working on it. And and he goes, where's our room? Just with a balcony. And I looked at the guy and he like shook his head like, no, no, you don't have a balcony. And so then kid walked away and I went, you know, man, just just just give me the room, the balcony. It's fine. Just do it. Let's just do that.

07:20Let's just do that. And he goes, you sure? And I said, yeah, yeah, no problem. I gave him the credit card. Let's let's go. What's seventy nine dollars? It's not the end of the world, right? It's a special day. So we we get the bags. We're walking down the hallway and we go up the elevator. And, you know, it's just like it seems like everything's taking a while. We start walking down the hall. And this hallway is like a mile long, long as I've ever seen in my entire life. We get to the room and I swipe the little card or I put the card on the key thing, open the door and my wife says, oh, my God, it has a balcony on the cascades. Just I've dreamed of staying in this room since I was a little girl. And I will tell you, as a man who's a provider and a husband, no better words have ever come out of my wife's mouth. I mean, just versus seventy nine dollars spent. You go, this is something I've been dreaming of since I was a little girl staying in a room and she never stayed. We've never stayed at the Arpin Hotel ever one time in our life.

08:21And so this is this is one of those moments where you kind of. Thank God I made that decision. Thank God I said, yes, you should do that. And the room was gorgeous. The whole hotel was absolutely amazing. Sound waves was a ton of fun. The kids got to do the flow writer thing where they like boogie boarding. It was an absolute blast. If you can, I highly recommend doing it. The outside wasn't open, but it will be open. And it was a lot of fun. So they're not a sponsor or anything. I just thought I would share that fun story. The good fortune of mine to say, you know, man, just give me that room. I had no idea that that was a situation, but apparently it was so awesome. All right. So enough of my my silly stories. Thank you guys for listening again. Hey, go follow us on social media. Go follow us on Instagram at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio and send me a message and tell me your thoughts on the shows.

09:25Give me your recommendations to who you'd like to have on the show. I'm pretty good. If you have somebody you really want to hear and you get in there, I can I can try and get them on. I try and be all over the place. But if you have somebody that you really love and you want to hear their story, you think that they're really interesting. Shoot me a message. Hit me up. And hopefully I can I can make that happen for you. So we got a lot of fun things coming up on the horizon. And at the end of the end of the show, you're going to hear about a new venture that we're doing that is going to hopefully be a game changer. I'm super excited. And I don't want to make you wait any longer before we talk to Jim Myers. Super excited today to welcome back to the show, Jim Myers. Hi, Jim. Good morning. How are you, Mr. Still? I'm you know what? I'm wonderful. I'm so I've been looking forward to the day for like a week and however long it's been since we decided we were going to do this. I have been like eagerly looking forward to this morning.

10:26Me as well. You know, I love talking to you and we always have great rambling conversations when we do get together. And there's always so much to talk about. And it's just trying to rein it in. And I guess that's your job as the host to give it some form. I mean, I guess, but I think the fun is not having form. Right. I did go back and I listened to our first episode. Do you know when you were last on like the first time we did like a show? I I'm guessing it was before the soda shop opened. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, was it 2020? Mm hmm. Yeah. Do you know what day? No. The episode I think we recorded on April the 8th, 2020. Wow. We were in the middle of quarantine. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like. And it's painful how much I didn't know you when I go back and listen to the interview and I go back and I'm and this is really the most exciting thing about doing this podcast for me is that I knew of you and I knew.

11:37But like after that interview, I felt like I had a new friend. Yeah. And how many times we've seen each other since then. And every time I see you, I feel like I'm seeing like an old friend. And me, too. And I love it. It's like my favorite thing about the podcast is being able. I feel like we went through this time where we weren't allowed to connect with people, but I connected with more people than I ever have in my life. Right. Well, that's the beauty of having this platform, too. And meeting new people and interviewing them. And it's it's honestly one of the things I miss most about being a journalist is having a license to sit down and talk with people and coax their stories out of them. And that's a that's a great fun thing to do. It is. I get giddy, I get so excited. So you said we're starting here. And I think I don't like to do a lot of conversation like walking in the door because I get to like it's good to see you. Good to see you. It's good to be seen. You know, it's nice to be out and not wearing a mask, not wearing a mask smile.

12:43And yeah, yeah, to see what people's faces look like. The last time we did this, you were sitting in your studio or it's like a room in your house and we were looking at each other. I think we I was doing it via Zoom. That's right. Yeah, I was in my my home office. Yeah. But this is a lot better face to face. Much better. Yeah. So I think after we got off the last time, you said, OK, so that that was fun, man. Thanks for the interview. You said, you know, one of the things I'm going to tell you, don't tell anybody, but I think, well, this is what you're doing now. You said, oh, right. We're going to redo the Elliston Place Soda Shop and I'm going to come in and I'm going to do all this stuff. And you kind of after the interview and you said, this is all still very quiet. Nobody knows anything. We're not talking about it. Right. Yeah. Now, obviously, the cat's out of the bag. Oh, boy, is it? Yeah. Boy, that's so, yeah, two years. A lot happens in two years, you know, starting a restaurant build out during covid.

13:46Thinking, oh, this is no problem. Covid is going to be over in a few months. That's fine. We're we're building out a restaurant. We couldn't be open anyhow. This is perfect. Perfect. And then we were ready in September to open the doors. And Covid was still surging. And we hadn't even had that winter of 2020. Surge yet around the holidays. And Tony Giratana, the owner, just said, you know what? I don't want to open at half capacity with plexiglass baffles between the booths. I don't I don't want to open like that. We've put a lot of effort in and soul into this place. Let's wait till we can open it the way we'd like to open it. So we waited until May, you know, September to May. That's a long time. May 2021. Yeah, yeah, that gives you time to overthink everything. Just when you've made decisions and cross things off the list.

14:49Oh, we've got a few more months. Let's let's think about it again, which is not not good always. And we and even when we did open, we were still under a mask restriction for the employees, at least. Yeah, it was a I don't recommend opening during a pandemic if you can help it. Opening a restaurant is a very difficult task. It's you're right in a normal economy without any crazy exterior forces hitting you. Opening a restaurant is not easy. No. There's so many little details and so many little things you have to get done. And I think you throw a pandemic in the middle of it and it's like this. OK, like, right. What can't we do now? Yeah, yeah. And the staffing issues that were bad before and.

15:52You know, the the sea shift change that's happened after the pandemic for this whole industry of people rethinking. Do I want to work in a restaurant? Can I find something better to do? So you were you one of those people? I have I have questioned my sanity so many times during this process. You wrote about restaurants for years. I did. You were a quote unquote critic. Yes, I was a full on old school anonymous critic. And anything you want to take back? I've I've I've sent some notes of apology to a few people. I have actually, I won't say who. But yeah, my someone asked if my icy heart had melted a little bit during this phase. No, there's been there's been I wouldn't say comeuppance, but certainly a deeper realization of how hard this business is.

17:09And a. You know, everyone's got great ideas, and I had some great ideas going into this thinking, oh, I want to do this and I want to do that, and you learn quickly that you're bound by things like labor and food costs. Oh, yeah, there's a business behind. Yeah, and there is. And I think there are still there will always be people in the restaurant business who don't have that business sense. You wonder why the failure rate is so high for this industry. And you you see that if you don't have things firmly, you know, under control, eventually the having a lot of people walk through the door can hide your sins only so long. Well, restaurant users are typically very nice people. We have a spirit of service. Yes. You want to greet people.

18:09You want to be like, hi, we're so happy you're here. And the industry itself is very grueling. You know, it's kind of like the hotel business. I have no I have never worked in hotels. But I have massive amounts of respect because. It just every day it keeps coming. Like it's it's not like, you know, before when you're writing, where it's like, I need to take a personal day, I got to take a day. I got to take two days, whatever it is. You could take a couple of days, but in a restaurant, running a restaurant manager, like every single day, you know, keeps coming. You have to have staff to open the restaurant. You have to have enough food. You have to have enough people. You have to have all your reservations in line. You've got and you've got to get all of those people there and then motivate those people to be excited, to serve people that are sometimes assholes. Well, yeah, I mean, you're right. Once you turn that open sign on, it doesn't stop. It just does not stop. And you learn that I recall very often when Randy Rayburn, who talked me into this folly, said he said a couple of things.

19:17And I think these are great summations. And he said these things separately, but they work together. He said, one, the restaurant business is a blue collar business. Don't have any feeling that it's not. It is a blue collar business. It is hard physical labor. And it is. It is. And the other thing he says is restaurant restaurants are theater. Every day, every service, every plate is a one act play that is performed daily, nightly, every day. And it is. And somewhere in the middle of all of that is the beauty of what true hospitality is. Yes. And it's and it attracts a certain kind of person, a certain kind of person enjoys that, is willing to suffer the the physical constraints, is willing to suffer the stress of service and the adrenaline rush of of having people come to the door and taking care of them during a busy service and making sure everything works as well as it can.

20:43And that's that takes a certain person to do that. The amount of emotions that I just felt as you were describing that just the the kind of the low when you first get there and then getting ramped up and then when that door does open. Yeah, I used to love, you know, we do line up before the shift and you get everybody pumped up and you all the specials and everything and you look towards the front door and there's like 20 people standing at the front door. There's like this this jitter, like this excitement that I would get and I go, oh, yeah, it's on, guys. Like and it's like that moment where you go from drinking coffee, filling up, you know, salt and peppers and wiping down tables, getting ready, preparing to. It's on for that curtain to go up here. Yeah. And you're officially like, here we go. I'm on stage and you just and you go on and it's you just go. And it's a special it's a special thing. I think that we we call it turbo boost in our restaurant. Right. Because you kick in your turbo boost. Here we go.

21:45But I think that's just I think that's a spirit of service. I think that's a restaurant people thing. We call that people that feel that butterfly, that get that excitement. Right. We call restaurant people. Yeah. And I'm I'm still not sure I'm one of them. You know, I love the hospitality side of things, but there's a part of me that gets so filled with angst when there's a line at the door. And you want it's it's that that deep desire to please people. Also, with wanting everything to be perfect, which it never is and never can be. And it Craig Clift, our GM, I know you know Craig very well and Craig thrives on the edge of chaos on the chaos. He he it just pumps him up and thrives. And me, it just fills me with angst. It's why I'm I'm absolutely terrible as an expediter because I just get over amped and the plates and looking at the the electronic tickets hanging in the window and looking over my shoulder at the restaurant and looking at people looking around for they need something and seeing people at the door.

23:05And it's it's a lot. It is a lot. There's a there's a respect that you have because I think expediting is one of my favorite things. Right. Because you're literally the air traffic controller. No. And it's for certain people. Yeah. I I not get off on it, but like that's one of my favorite. You can say that because some people really do. They they they seize that that responsibility and the the speed and having all these moving parts working and getting them in concert. So it's a rush. I want to break that down. So if if you're listening to this and I'll explain what we're talking about. Right. Because I sometimes do who aren't restaurant. People listen to this podcast and they're like, what's an expediter? I don't understand why that's so hard. So if you're at a table and you got six people or four people, whatever it is. And Grandpa orders a cheeseburger. Well done. And then Mom orders a salad with grilled chicken. And then you get another person gets a grilled cheese sandwich.

24:07And then there's a medium rare steak. Right. So you've got four different dishes that typically take different times to cook. If I fire that well done or that medium rare steak, at the same time I fire the well done burger, that steak's going to sit in the window and overcook. So at some point, we have two main rules in restaurants. One is you serve hot food hot and you serve cold food cold. Well, if you have cold food and hot food on the same check, how do you make sure those things come out at the exact same times you can serve hot food, hot, cold, cold? There's one guy, there's one person, male, female who sits in the middle of the kitchen. And when tickets come in, when servers send the ticket in, they then look at these tickets and they go, hey, hold the salad here or fire the salad, start the pasta, don't start the pasta. We got four chickens all day, all day is a term for how many total that the line cook or the chef is cooking. And you have to kind of put all of that together and then set it there to be ran to a table. All of that perfectly at the same time.

25:09Go and then do that a thousand times a night. Right. With I mean, I mean, and it's just it never when you have 30 tickets on a board and 30 different tables going at the same time, and you're trying to match where everything goes. You got those two fillets work and I need this. And then to get the medium, medium, well, medium, rare, all those things. Perfect. Every time you're giving me anxiety just talking about it. It's so much fun. But Miss Linda, who's been there for 30 years, loves to put me in expo. And she goes, you need to learn how to do this because and you do, because if you're part of the management team, you need to be able to step in any role at any time. And she just likes to see me squirm up there. But she won't let me squirm too much. If things are starting to build up a little bit too much, she'll come in and help. So I think what I originally thought of you doing in that building was you were going to be the person that when people walked in the door, you said, welcome to the Alastin Place Soda Shop.

26:15And like you were just kind of curating these experiences for people remembering people's names, welcoming in, shaking hands, kissing babies, and really kind of putting the cherry on top of an amazing experience with this history, the rich history of what's happening there. Is that what you're doing now? It's like, well, I romantically thought about this job. Well, that, I mean, ostensibly, that's what I was hired to do. And now I'm expoing Brandon. And I still do that. And I'm finally doing more of that again. Table visits. Yeah, just. Just being there and sharing our stories and talking to people. And and that's what I love. And I've been in Nashville long enough that I can look around the dining room and go. At any given night, that's Tony Brown sitting over there. Country music went through Tony Brown in the 90s.

27:17Tony Brown was Elvis's keyboard player. Tony Brown produced a hundred number one hits. But Tony comes in and sits down by himself and orders what we call the Jimmy Buffett special, which is fried chicken and coconut meringue pie. And. But the the young servers, they don't know who that is. So it's it's a chance to welcome people in, acknowledge them. And people like to be acknowledged. Yeah. And and then look around and go, oh, there's Bruce Doby, former editor of the Nashville Scene, sitting over there. There's Ralph. He runs the Nashville Chamber. There's Glenn Funk. He's running for district attorney again. And and sort of celebrate that. There's Howard Gentry, who used to come to the soda shop as a boy and was turned away because he was black.

28:23But is now a lifetime friend of the soda shop and and share his story with people. So that's that's the beautiful thing about the restaurant business is that sense of community that a place that's been around a long time holds. Now go back to May of 21 when we opened our doors, it became less about that and putting your finger in the dike to stop the leaks in the holes. And it turned into a good, I would say, 10 months of being a floor manager. You know, on some days making milkshakes for four hours straight when when someone doesn't show up or you're short staffed for that station, it's being the host because you don't have a host for that shift. It's being expo, it's busing tables, which I enjoy or working in the dish pit because they're backed up or it's a weird transition between two shifts when everything always seems to go to hell.

29:43The thing it's it's all of that. It's closing the restaurant at night and doing checkouts. It's a little bit of of everything. And and I enjoyed it. And I'm so glad I had that experience, but I'm also very glad I can now step back into that that ambassador role and focus on marketing and branding and community relations and social media and all those necessary things. And how in thinking about how we can grow our business, how we can put more people in the seats, because that never ends, no matter who you are, how good you are. You can't ever take for granted having people walk in that door. No, it's very, very important. That's why our number one at both of our restaurants, and I've got two iconic restaurants with, you know, Green Hills Grill and Maribol.

30:43Yeah, yeah. Talk about iconic names. We've been eating there for 30, 40 years. You have a lot longer than that. A little bit, but that's still a pretty good run in the community. And the name the name means something to people. It does. It's I don't know. It's just it's a crazy. It's a crazy experience. I find that people like you, who's a create your creative, right? I mean, you do. There's a lot of. I don't know how to describe it, because I'm the same one, but I consider myself to be a visionary to some degree in what we do, because I'm constantly looking forward. But there's a there's a creation of something. You're constantly searching for ideas. You're reading articles. You're listening to podcasts. You're out there just trying. And it's exhausting because you don't get to see immediate results. No. So but when you are a floor manager. So for me, like today, I'm finished this interview and then I'm going to go run a shift at Maribor because we have a sick manager. And I said, I got you. I'm there. Right. Yeah. And I'm so excited because I know for four or five hours.

31:44I'm playing restaurant. Right. I know what I'm doing and I can execute very, very well because I walk in the door and I have a list of things I need to do. I'm not creating anything. I'm executing and I get to go walk around, talk to people and bus tables. And there's an immediate satisfaction in busing a table. You take something that's dirty and immediately it's clean. You go, I did. Yeah. I get the bank that little bit of success. I just did. I don't have to think about something. I get on it, write it down, edit it, go back, write, set this up. And then two months later, I see the fruition like I'm it's there's an immediacy to that and it feels good. There is. And it does. Absolutely. So it is a weird balance of those two very different things to work very hard on something that may may never come to fruition or comes to fruition months later. You know, you're also working on seven other things when that happens. It's hard to take that moment and go, right.

32:46Wow, it's done. You're like, that's done. I have seven other things I got to go do. Yeah. That's hard. You know, but I think some of this perspective of living in the moment and going, OK, that was fun. I got to just run a shift today. And I led a team of people through a really busy lunch. And look what we accomplished. Yes, there's there's a to me, there's a massive sense of satisfaction of that. Yeah. If in my ideal world, I would be able to work on the creative side and be there, do it there. But the reality is, excuse me, the reality is when you're sitting in the restaurant, looking at your computer screen, trying to work on something, you can't help but look up and see the person standing at the front door waiting to be seated or hear the in our expo is it's an open kitchen. Hear the line cook go, you know, I got food to run.

33:50Yeah. And that's why I why I have this office. Right. Because none of that happens. No, no. Get stuff done. So I'm trying to still find that perfect. When I really need to sit down and get stuff done and make calls and write things, I'll do it away. But but I'm trying to be present there more because I love being there. And in seeing people and and talking to people, because that's that's the beauty of this business. It is. And I'm glad you're here today. Let's change the topic. Sure. We can talk about this for days, go back and forth. Changing the subject right after this super fast word from our sponsors. We are talking today about the compost company at compost company dot com. You can learn more right now. One of the things that I think is super important is references, right? You ask people for references. Hey, if you're using a company, then you've gone through and you've made all of the decisions.

34:54And if there's people that you respect who have made these decisions, maybe you should do the same thing, too. So I thought I would rattle off a few people, a few customers of theirs in the city, people who are doing the right thing, composting the Music City Center, Whole Foods, Starbucks, the Hilton Hotel downtown, Country Music Hall of Fame, Vanderbilt University, the National Farmers Market, Jenny's Ice Cream, Hunter's Station in East Nashville, Rolf and Daughters, Nordstrom, Metro, Metro Nashville Public Works, Second Harvest Food Bank, Gardens of Babylon, The Great House Company, St. Bernard Academy, Tristar Skyline Medical Center, Caterpillar Financial, Lowe's Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel. Guys, there are people in all of those businesses who made the decision to check out the Compost Company because they're doing the right thing. And it's something that will help our world.

35:58And I think you should at least check it out. So visit them at compostcompany.com. Or if you want to go straight to Jeffrey Ezell, his brothers, Jeffrey and Clay, go listen to their episode a couple of weeks back or give Jeffrey a call. His cell phone is 615-866-8152. That's 615-866-8152. You know, in the episode the other day, we talked about getting things done. And I know right now you have it on your checklist to call Erin Mosso over at Sharp Yeas Bakery. You've heard me talk about her for the last six months, talking about locally owned and operated woman owned bakery. They've been serving Nashville's locally owned and operated restaurants for 36 years. They deliver six days a week. And you've said, I really need to call her and find out. I need to go visit that website. What is it again? Sharpyeas.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. Go check them out, see what they've got. Put on your list to call Erin Mosso today.

37:00Have her stop by, learn more about their company, support local. If you're a local restaurant and you're buying bread from a broadliner, you need to stop right now. Her number is 615-319-6453. Take that off your to do list and get it done. 615-319-6453 Erin Mosso at Sharp Yeas Bakery. Last but not least, I want to talk about what chefs want. I know you probably use what chefs want, but do you follow them? So you should go to the socials and you need to follow what chefs want on Instagram as well as Facebook, because if you were, you would know that you could get Losada's carmine mix of five Spanish olives. That is the beautiful, beautiful packaging, amazing, amazing product. You can get those right now. You can get Schuchman's smoked rainbow trout. And then also, I saw this today. I love that it was green strawberries, local green strawberries from Vision Farms in Tennessee. They're lean and tart and they're beautiful. They have notes of grass and kiwi, refreshing, refreshing acidity, telling you to see so many cool things.

38:06And now they have a facility in Colorado. They're bringing in really cool, like spring born greens from Colorado and stuff. You just cannot find anywhere. I know, I know you're using creation guards, what chefs want, but you know what? You've got to follow them on the socials. They are updating. They'll let you know exactly what they've got. They are amazing. Whatchefswant.com is another great place to go or give them a call. 800-600-8510. They really are what chefs want. What have you been up to? How's your kid? Baseball. Oh, man. Nashville life. Like what else is going on with you? Yeah, I got a son in high school and he's he plays baseball and he's baseball obsessed, which I love. I did not play baseball, but I grew up loving baseball. And growing up in Milwaukee, I had the privilege to to know to have kids in my school who were the daughter of the owner of the team, which was Bud Selig at the time, who went on to become commissioner of baseball.

39:07And then Harry Dalton, who was the architect of the great Baltimore teams, and he had come to Milwaukee and he's the one who got the Brewers to a World Series. His daughter was in my class. So we we would grow up going to games and having that insider privilege. But sitting in the owner's box back then in the late 70s, early 80s was not fancy at the old Milwaukee County Stadium. They were essentially corrugated metal boxes hanging off the side of the upper deck. And they had plastic tables and folding chairs. And it wasn't fancy, but it was great because you were there. It was baseball. You were listening to the GM talk to agents on the phone as people were playing. And and there's Bud Selig's mother over there who who gave him his love for baseball. She was a Ukrainian immigrant. And he she grew up in New York and fell in love with baseball in New York and instilled that in her son.

40:13And and there's Mrs. Selig teaching me how to score a baseball game properly. So I grew up with that love. So having a son who plays is great to see the game through his eyes and his love for it. And then he he played for Overton this year. And they made the mistake of letting me be the PA announcer. And really, so I could channel my I like to think I'm equal parts. Vin Scully of the Dodgers, who is one of the greatest in the game. He's the greatest. And then Bob Euker of the Brewers, you know, his sense of humor and everything. And I wasn't really calling the game. All I'm doing is just hawking our our concession stand. You know, the best burgers, this side of Franklin Pike, you know. And so you get in a microphone here, too. Oh, my God. I love it. And so that was the highlight of my spring, not just watching my son play, but being able to get on the microphone.

41:17And after the opposing team would would if they hit a player with a pitch. I have my new signature catchphrase. Well, after a visit from the seamstress. Next up to bat, number nine, Mike Waddell. That's fantastic. That was fun. So, yeah, so that's just having a 16 year old at home and who's starting to drive and. And all of that, you take inspiration from Bob Euker. Now, I it's funny because you know that he was the Brewers announcer. I thought he was the Cleveland Indians. And now I know, yeah, he's just a bit. That's right. No, I do. Yeah, he was he was great and just a great guy. And he's still he still works for the Brewers, so he's still out there. He's amazing. I don't know if you called it. I get to I yesterday last night, we had our first playoff game. I have two boys, seven and eight years old now. They're on the same team.

42:18Eight, you coach pitch. Nice. I'm one of the coaches on the team. OK. Very similar to running a floor shift in a restaurant. Yes. With kids running around, not listening to you. Yeah, it's amazing. I'm going to catch shit for saying that, but it's funny. But we lost last night, so we have a game tomorrow night. And it's Mike, like one of the kids loves playing. And the other kid is like, this sucks. He hates it. It's like it's like dragging him to the car to get into the game. He's like, I don't want to go. And all he wants to do is bat. And every time that the ending ends and he's on deck, it is like a nuclear like, well, what is going on? I was going to bet. And he freaks out and he cried. And I'm like, dude, this is a lot right now. It's hard. It's a stupid game. It's such a hard game to teach kids. It's slow. It's complicated. It's it's a thousand situations.

43:20And it's it if if all you can do is keep them engaged and having fun, then you've won. And if you can do that, even when they're 16 years old, as they as they continue to learn the game. My son's summer coach is a great guy named Garve alone. And and I I he he was the first like coach I'd ever met who would say, yeah, this is a dumb game. It's hard. It's like if you can hit the ball one out of three times, you're great. You know, it's humbling. And, you know, I my son made a mistake at third base and and he said, congratulations, Arthur. You've now learned your your five hundred sixty fifth situation. And there are only about 10,000 more to go. Yeah. And it's it's crazy. But I but we love it. It's like the restaurant business.

44:21Restaurant business is a stupid business. What a crazy way to make money. And with all those variables and all these things that you can't control and those that you can are flying in a million different directions. And like we said, it's it's just back breaking and joint destroying. And yet we do it and we we play it and we we thrive on it. I find the restaurant business makes it tougher for me. Like at home, because I feel like I'm like Teflon and I don't have emotions anymore. I mean, I haven't had emotions for a long time. I'm learning how to have emotions again. Right. Well, like, you know, something will happen. Right. And my wife, like, this is happening. I'm like, OK, so we'll do this, this and this and this. She's like, no, but you understand. I'm like, no, I do. The answer is it's like I don't have the capacity to stop. I'm like, oh, no, you don't understand, honey.

45:22Like shit happens all day, every day. Hey, somebody just pooped on the wall in the bathroom. Somebody threw up in the dining room. Somebody just spilled this. Somebody just it's like, OK, what's next? You just write the line cook just walked out in the middle of the shift and you got it's like every single day, there's a million things thrown at you. And I get home and I'm like, honey, it's not a big deal. It's a big deal to me. And I'm like, oh, OK, that's what that's what it is. Then that's great. That's so true. But it's I don't care anymore. I'm like, it doesn't matter to me because I will just figure it out. Right. I mean, nothing just saw nothing is nothing is terminal. Let's just whatever. OK. No, it's true. That's very true. Something that we all have to deal with in this this business is just. Yeah. And I always thought that was the most amazing thing is I get up every day and I have zero clue. I have no clue what's going to happen. Right. I had I had one of my heroes come in the restaurant the other day.

46:24Have you had any have you ever been starstruck? Do you get that at all? Absolutely. I mean, I've met a million famous people over the years and and I've. Had conversations with three members of the royal family and all these things. But when I met Johnny Cash, I was I had. You know, he did his classic, Hello, I'm Johnny Cash. And all I could do was look at him and go, Yes, you are. I mean, what do you do? Right. And I ran out of things to say at that point. So I was a 90s, you know, grunge. Pearl Jam is my all time favorite band. I have such a like an emotional response to Nirvana music and like Smashing Pumpkins was one of those bands to me. The melancholy and the infinite sadness. And I was this angry kid, you know, this teenager. And every Smashing Pumpkins song, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, all those bands just spoke to my soul.

47:25And the other day, I'm at the grill and I see this guy come in. He's wearing a black jacket that says zero across the front. And I was like, Holy shit, that's Billy Corgan. And he's just sitting in the lobby. And I'm like, What's the name on that? What's the name of that party? He's like, Hillary. It was he was in there with Hillary Williams. And and I was like that, that's Billy Corgan. Holy shit. And I started shaking. I'm like shaking like this dude wrote the songs that helped me get through my teenage years. Yeah. Yeah. Help shape my teenager to some degree. And so I'm like, I'm seeing I'm going to take him to the table. I'm taking the table and I take him to the table. She sees a friend and she walks over to say hi. And so he's sitting there by himself. And I was just like, I don't ever do this. And this is totally unprofessional. Right. But you're like one of four people in the world that I would like. You're you're this guy. And he was so gracious and so nice. But I don't I don't. Yeah.

48:27Nashville's a fun place. It is. It really is to have people like that come in. And but to, you know, the Nashville way is not to bother people. I know I don't. And we have lots of but you want to talk to them. You want to acknowledge, like I said, acknowledge them. And, you know, that's talking about Tony Brown coming in. Or I just wrote a blog post about Keith Bilbrey coming in. And Keith was in the he was a DJ for WSM. And he was a host of the Grand Ole Opry. And he did all these things. He was on the Opry for 30 years. And but he's not as involved anymore. And so it's nice for him to feel recognized and and welcomed and acknowledged again. And it's it's great to be able to do that for folks. And this is a guy even even Tony Brown said, you know, this this game has kind of passed me by a little bit. People don't care who I am anymore.

49:28I'm thinking, man, that that's sad to me because you're you're fucking Tony Brown. Can I swear on this show? Oh, yeah, you can. It's like you're the guy. You're one of the most amazing people in this city who had a profound impact on on the economy of the city and the genre and produced so many great songs. And he was talking about he was surprised how one of the new artists had even heard of him. And I'm going, well, someone needs to teach these new artists a thing about the history of the city. But that's that's another topic. That's interesting. So I don't think that, like, I don't think about that stuff. Yeah, I think that just. We can what's in front of me. And you think about all of old Nashville and what it was. And they're still here. Right. And it's still going on. But I think a lot of them probably feel forgotten.

50:29They do. And, you know, that's the that's the scary perspective on age and aging. And, you know, I I graduated from high school in 1980 and I'm turning 60 this year. OK. And someone said. When when we were seniors in high school in 1980. The people who are our age now, people who were 60, 60 years old then were World War two veterans. Yeah. And I, you know, I don't feel like someone who would be a World War two veteran to someone who's a senior in high school now. I don't think of that gap or that distance. But it's it's huge and it's culturally huge. And you so I'm constantly amazed talking to our young servers of who they've never heard of.

51:33And I know it sounds such an old guy line. What do you mean? But it would be just the same as talking to an an angst ridden 18 year old in 1980 and asking them about Glenn Miller Band. Who's Glenn Miller? Oh, that kind of old fashioned big band music. No one listens to that anymore. And it's the same thing today. And I mean, that's just the the mystery of time. I think three quarters of the servers that were there that day had no idea who Billy Corrigan was. I'm sure. Smashing what? There's a band that has Smashing Pumpkins. Yeah, I don't understand that. No. Nobody knew who they were. Alan Jackson comes into Maribor from time to time. Nobody knows who he is. Wow. Like Alan Jack. Now he looks completely different when he's not. Yeah. Alan Jackson's got a cowboy hat on. Or a baseball hat instead of a cowboy hat.

52:33Yeah, he doesn't. I recognize him pretty quickly. I'm like, wow, that's Alan Jackson. And he has a table to sit at and the whole thing. But yeah, servers would go on and have no clue that that's Alan Jackson. Who's Alan Jackson? I've got a great Alan Jackson story for you. Give it to come on. So had a very dear friend named Maude Gilman. Maude worked for Arista Records. She was hired. She was employee number two of Arista Records in New York. Hired by Clive Davis. OK. And Maude was the quintessential New Yorker. She had the accent and she was the head of creative services. So all the video album artwork, marketing materials, all of that. And she moved to Nashville to work for Tim Dubois, the new Arista thing here. And I'd pop in and see her from time to time at her office because it was always a fun place to hang out. And Maude is there and she's just beside herself. I've never seen her so stressed out and upset.

53:40And she's just going, fuck, fuck, fuck, which she was no choir girl. But that if this was even over the top for New York, Maude Gilman. And I go, what's going on? She goes. Helen Jackson shaved his fucking mustache off and we shot all of the album artwork for his next album. And now he's decided he wants to put it back. So she had to Photoshop his mustache back on every piece of artwork that they were going to use for the album launch because he decided he didn't like the way he looked without the mustache. And she she was in a scramble to meet deadlines to make sure that that mustache was put back on his face. See, the record business isn't that far from restaurant. No, it's the same thing. No, I'll never, never forget that. It was very funny.

54:40That's a great story. You know, just want the mustache back on. They have Photoshop. How long ago was that? Well, that would have been that. I mean, the nine. I mean, yeah, they had some version of it. You know that they could use to do that. And Maude was a magician with that kind of thing. So old Alan Jackson shaved that signature mustache off. We always you know, it's funny. So listen back to our episode and we just go back into like these old Nashville stories. Yeah, I think that's just like a thing. Yeah, well, it is. It just pulling in here to your office here on 21st. You're next to the laundromat. Yeah. And it's been called the rock and roll laundromat. And, you know, one right on the corner of Blair and right. Yeah, on the corner of Blair and 21st. And I'll I was working on a film project at the time, the thing called Love River Phoenix's last movie.

55:45It had Sandra Bullock. I remember that great, great cast of Nashville. I'm here. I'm never leaving. On the rooftop. Yeah, that's it. The Bluebird Cafe was like the centerpiece. Yeah, it was the it was that it was Nashville before the Nashville show came along. And so they I had met the executive producer because I was hired to help with the music and to work with the music supervisor. And so I'd met I hadn't met the executive producer and the assistant producer was this woman named Darlene Chan. And they had a British director lined up for it, but he got pulled off on another project. You're thinking British director doing a country music film, but it actually made sense because he he was a real music guy. And and he loved the he loved the music. So. Mid pre-production, they had to hire a new director, and they ended up hiring Peter Bogdanovich, legendary guy. So I'm sitting in that laundromat.

56:50On a date in the laundromat. Yeah, right behind us here. Yeah, right here. You were on a date. I'm on a date there. I had a bottle of wine and there was this girl that I was really sweet on. And so we were doing laundry, drinking wine, hanging out there and sitting on the and I saw the same chairs that are up against the the wall facing the street, the glass. Yeah, giant picture glass window sitting there and drinking wine, hanging out and. Bam, bam, bam. Someone's rapping on the glass right outside. I turn around and it's Darlene Chan, one of the producers from this movie. She's waving like this and standing behind her is this guy. And he's got the collar popped. He's got the polo shirt or the like the the polo with the collar popped and then a white button down over that scarf. And it's Peter Bogdanovich, and they're driving around that night looking at locations.

57:56And just happened to be there. And he's staring at this girl I'm with. I mean, just transfixed staring. And it wasn't until I really understood who he was and his history that. He's he was married to Dorothy Stratton, the playboy playmate who was murdered. And then he married Dorothy's little sister. Which is kind of I don't know, and I don't even know who this is. Yeah. And so they made movies about this. I forget the name of the movie about Dorothy Stratton. I think Margo Hemingway was was the who played Dorothy Stratton anyhow. So he's he's just in because this girl was tall, blonde, statuesque and probably reminded him of Dorothy Stratton. But it was just crazy. The psych there's Peter Bogdanovich staring at this person.

58:58And we meet and talk and oh, isn't this great? And then they go on their way and we finish our wine and our laundry. That's a Nashville story to me. 100 percent. Did you? The girl is there, like, you know, you know, these people. Yeah, no, you didn't get me any friends. They didn't get me any traction. No, Sam. Yeah. He's like, who's Peter Bogdanovich? I don't know who this guy is either. Yeah. And he just passed away a few. A few weeks ago. Really? So, yeah. Wow. But I tell you, there's there's so many of those little stories that people you never you inevitably have. If you've been here long enough or right anywhere, you just run into people and you're like, wow, that's oh, my gosh. No, it's true. And I hadn't thought of that story in years. But seeing the and I've driven by the laundromat thousands of times on 21st, but turning right there and realizing I had to turn right behind it and looking at it and just all these memories came flooding back.

01:00:10What part of town do you live in? You know, West Mead. West Mead. Yeah, the edge of West Mead. OK. Where did you go to school? Well, I didn't grow up here. So my mother was born here and her whole side of the family settled in Middle Tennessee in the early eighteen. But I grew up all over. We we my dad worked for Caterpillar. So we lived and I was born in Peoria where Caterpillar is based. And we moved from there to St. Louis to Nashville for a couple of years in the early 60s. And Jackson, Mississippi. I did a stint there, South Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and then settled in Milwaukee. And that's where the family still is. And you came back to Nashville. Yeah, I came here for college to Vanderbilt and then left and then came back for grad school and then left and then. Came back and stayed.

01:01:11Yeah, you said you just recently wrote a column that we said you wrote something and your blog. Oh, a blog for yeah, for the soda shop. So yeah, are you doing any writing? Not as much as I would like, but starting to get back into that. We're going to start doing a weekly blog post about just different things about the soda shop. There are just so many stories, historical things, new things. I mean, I'm still a journalist at heart, so I will meet someone and hear their story and say, hey, can I write about you and and profile you? So so, yeah, starting to do more of that. Why don't you guys do the the soda shop podcast? Why don't you get when you see that person, why don't you sit down and do like a 20 minute interview with them and share, let them tell the story with you? Yeah, that's a great idea. You know, a lot of fun. Yeah. Put that out, too. Then you can even write a blog post after that to kind of go to surmise it. Sure.

01:02:14Yeah. Well, we got a studio here. We can make that happen. Yeah, there you go. A lot of fun. Yeah, it would be. I've you know, I've thought about doing the podcast thing forever. You don't work in media without thinking about it or without people saying you should do this. You know, you need to do that. You should write a book. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, I know the realities of that. And who's going to pay for it? You know, which is why I'm glad you've built this up to a point that you've been able to monetize it. You know, I have several sponsors. Yeah. And they work out really well because there are people that I trust that I work with that I'm excited to talk about because I believe in them. But they do afford like one of the things is I don't take any money from restaurants. I don't. Right. And that's important. Last time I was at the Elliston Place Soda Shop, Craig was like, let me know. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not. I'm not here to get one thing for free. Any restaurant that I go to, I have sponsors that give me money.

01:03:17And I like to pay when I go places. I want to support restaurants. And that's really what I'm not getting rich at all on this. But it does allow me to have a studio and to buy good equipment and sound good and, you know, to go out and eat with my wife and family and people. And it's nice to have a budget to do that, have a budget to do that. That and then, you know, I think that really the biggest thing is creating community, doing this and bringing all these people together and being able to introduce places. I've got two new sponsors that are technology companies that really aren't in Nashville. Yeah, that are brand new, that are amazing all over the West Coast, but they just haven't made it to Nashville yet. And this medium allows me to share kind of some real. I'm hopefully introducing people to new technology that they didn't know about. So I mean, if there's a way I can help people run a business better or operate with really good vendors, you know, when you're in that four walls all day long, you can't go out and do a lot of research.

01:04:19No, absolutely not. And I have that unique thing that I do get to do that a lot. So I'm able to kind of I can share really cool stuff and people can save money or whatever. I'm actually working right now on a pretty big deal. I haven't talked about it yet. I think I'll talk about it. I want to tell you about it. OK, and I'll do a full episode on it. I'm a little nervous to say this. It's going to be called the Nashville Restaurant Alliance. And it's going to be a I mean, it's it's you think Nashville originals? Sure. Back in the day. Oh, I know it very well. Right. So they I think if I if I don't do a whole episode on this, but back in the day, I think I was selling Maggiano's and Ten Angel Produce at the time. Yeah, I think my channels is paying like twenty two dollars a case for Romaine and ten angels at like thirty four. Yeah. And it's like, well, dude, what the hell? I'm like, they buy one hundred and ten cases at a time. And they buy it on one delivery, and it cost me one hundred dollars to make a delivery. And so they they pay a lot less.

01:05:20And then you're buying from four different produce companies because you think you're getting the best deal, but you're only giving me eight cases on my delivery. And it cost me one hundred dollars to make that delivery. I got to charge you twelve dollars and seventy four cents above every case just to break even. Yeah. So you're going to pay a lot more. I think that was there was kind of a catalyst. There's we'll get a bunch of restaurants together. We'll get a bunch of restaurants together. And when we have 50 restaurants together, then we can do some things. And I think that he did a great job. He got the restaurants together and then they couldn't agree on anything. You know, you get a bunch of people in the same room. And it's like, well, I like Cisco, all like this. I know. I worked brief briefly with them. Yeah, with the Nashville Originals. And it was like hurting, not just hurting cats, but hurting cats on amphetamines. But the idea is great. I mean, the idea on the surface of leveraging your collective strength for whether it's for advertising spends or buying produce, but they couldn't they couldn't wrangle it.

01:06:32No. So I've got a bunch of vendors already in line of people who I trust, who I like, who are willing to offer better deals for restaurants. And I just I feel like the community needs something to bring it together. And so the National Restaurant Alliance is going to be born here. It's already born, but it's I'm going to take it to the masses and do quarterly meetings where we introduce some where we talk about new technologies. I'm going to do really cool events that members get in for free. It's not going to be something expensive, but working a deal with Gordon Food Service right now that's going to lock in pricing for people that choose to, hey, if I want to go that route, I can go that route. And if I can save some restaurateurs a bunch of money and then I can bring them together on a quarterly basis to share stories and strengthen, hey, the best practices and let's just if it's just a reason for everybody to get together and shake hands. And I'm in a locally owned and operated restaurants, all rising tides rises, all ships.

01:07:36And I'm tired of seeing local Nashville restaurants torn down and Ruby Sunshine's put up. I'm tired of seeing places like Jackson's of the reference I'm making like Jackson's go away. And then this chain gets put up there or I want to I want to help those restaurateurs do some things that they don't necessarily have the opportunity to do. Utilize some of the negotiating power that I have and that we can do collectively and share that. And if I can save people some money, maybe we can pay employees more. Right. We can keep restaurants around a little bit longer, but give us some power back. And I don't know, I think it's something that's needed. I think it's great. And I hope it I hope it works because it is important. I mean, some of the things that I have learned in my brief tenure on the other side of the rope, I hope just the clusterfuck of distributors of of just that world, the how just to see how prices fluctuate.

01:08:55Now, some of that's just the times that we're in and the supply side interruptions because of pandemic and all of that. But, you know, to see see how these relationships develop with distributors that change over time, not always for the best. And I'm trying not to call anyone out or point fingers because I know it's a difficult business and this is but but learning about that and learning how the restaurant has to constantly stay on guard. You can't ever relax in the comfort of your relationship with any vendor I have seen because mistakes happen all the time. So you just have to check everything. But then something that you've been buying for a year, one day is different. And it's because, oh, yeah, that product is slightly different.

01:09:56It's it's made in a slightly different way. And it's a staple that you need for your menu. And it's what you have is not only different, but wildly inferior in quality, texture, whatever. And you're going, what the hell? And we weren't, you know, we communicated boxes look similar, codes look similar, but all it takes is one. And so you just have to you just it's exhausting to stay on top of that all of the time. It's exhausting for you. And it's exhausting for them. Being somebody who worked as a vendor for 17 years. You know, I sold produce for 11 years, nine, 10 years here in Nashville. And I was a district sales manager at US Foods for three years. And it's so frustrating for me who genuinely wanted to help restaurants succeed.

01:10:59They're both businesses. But there's such a lack of trust. Yeah. And it is palpable. It's kind of what you just now said. There is a lack of trust between restaurateurs and their vendors. Because so many people have screwed people. This goes back to what I said previously. People that work in restaurants are nice people. They have a spirit of service. They get into this because they love to serve. We're servants. That's what we do. People walk in the door and we have no idea whether they just put their dog down, whether they just won the lottery, they just got divorced, they just got married. We don't know what their mindset is, but we know that when they come in, we're going to give them genuine service and hospitality. And if they leave there, we want them leaving a little bit better than when they came in. We want them leaving going, wow, whatever happened to me an hour ago, I just got transported away from there for this experience I just got to have. And I'm going to leave here feeling nourished, which is not just fed.

01:12:00I feel whole. We want that, right? We want that. And I'd like to talk more about that, but finish your other. But the problem with that is that people that do those things that have that are nice people and they get taken advantage of. So you can either there's like this duality of like, I'm going to be this hard ass who's going to scream at every person that comes in here because I want them to know that I'm not to be messed with, which only breeds more distrust. Imagine if you treated your wife that way. I'm just waiting for you to cheat on me. So I'm just going to be so hateful and angry. And it's like, that's not how you foster positive relationships. So one of my goals here with all of this is these vendors that I'm working with, that we're like, I want to educate people and I want to bring back. Hey, look, this, this Gordon food service, SuperSource, Cytex, these companies who I'm working with, they're not, we're going to lock in pricing. Pricing is not going to be an issue. We're going to work on service, but we, I want you to utilize these people as extensions of your leadership team, as partners, trusted partners that help you succeed.

01:13:09The level of pressure that you can not have knowing that somebody's got your back a hundred percent and you're not picking them off of four different people, I think should bring a level of just like calm, like a, Oh, wow, that's really nice. And then also for them knowing that, Hey, look, we're going to treat each other with respect. And when something changes, I need you to communicate. We need to meet once a month where we go over all the details and let's just talk about it. And if we can educate people how to do that, I think that we could change. I have this goal of changing the industry. I want to change the industry to where the restaurant industry comes to a place where people want to go to have careers. I want to offer 401ks and insurance. And like, I want more people retiring from, I want retirement parties from restaurants. Yeah. You just don't hear, no, it's totally doable, but we have to make, make the change. We have to say, we're going to treat our people better. We're going to offer the benefits. We're going to offer wellness opportunities because all the things we described earlier, just the insanity of everyday changing can drive you crazy.

01:14:15And we have to protect our own and we just don't, we just don't. People are a commodity that we use to come in. Oh, you're just a server. You're just this, you're just that. Like, no, we have to, oh, we have to put our arms around each other. We have to have that level. And I want to bring that back. I want to bring, somebody has to step up and say, we have to change the way we fundamentally operate as restaurants in our city. And what can I do to change this industry for the better? That's why I want to do the Nashville Restaurant Alliance. I want to bring people together and I want to start something that says, we're going to do it differently. We're going to be better. We are going to, whatever the world says about the hospitality industry in Nashville, we do it different. We do it different. Well, I think that's beyond noble and. And I'm going to run two restaurants in a podcast while we do it, but I'm going to. You'll die trying. I'm going to, but you know what I'm going to. Damn it. I feel like we can, you're going to talk about hospitality.

01:15:16No, well, I mean, it fits all of that. And I think that's one of the, one of the biggest things that I've learned working in the restaurant. And these are things that I understood intuitively. You know, you cover an industry long enough, you begin to understand it, but there's no substitute for actually working in it. And it's that, it's that notion of what hospitality means at its very root of taking care of people. And the thing that I wasn't, and I can't remember if I talked about this. It all with you on previous conversations. I wasn't emotionally prepared for, for that side of it in terms of the depth of the relationships that you have the chance to develop with your customers.

01:16:20Your guests in the more pure, you know, use of that word hospitality and guests. And the soda shop has been around for so long that there, there are some of these traditions that it has rooted in that physical community that it's in, being close to the healthcare center of the city. So there's this tradition that when someone has a baby at the old Baptist hospital, the dad brings them a milkshake, you know, that's been going on for generations. For generations. I didn't know that. Yeah. And so we, we actually did a little marketing thing of putting a free milkshake card in the packet that new moms get at the, at the, but it's, it's this tradition. And we had onesies made that say new kid on the rock block, you know. But, but the other side of that is there are people who come to Nashville from all over the state or the mid-south, whether it's going to Vanderbilt or one of the other hospitals, seeking treatment of some kind. And some of them are here, they might be waiting for an organ donor. Some of them may be here because they have a baby in the NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit.

01:17:52So they're living in a hotel or one of these long range hotels and they come in to eat a lot. So you get to know these people. And you, you ask them how they are in a, in a very sincere way. Not just a greeting. Hey, what's up? How are you? Like, how are you? And you come to recognize them because they have hospital bracelets on, or they have a visitor tag. And you don't know if they have someone in for a routine hernia surgery, or whether a relative is in their end of days. Yes. And to be able to, to sincerely welcome people and connect with them and offer them comfort food in the purest sense and just comfort in general. And say, sit, when they go on, I've been sitting here and taking up this booth. It's like you sit there as long as you like, as long as you need. Yeah. And, and you come back whenever you need to come back and charge up your phone and just hang out and do whatever to get away from the hospital, you know, for whatever you need. You're welcome here. And that's a deeply emotional thing.

01:19:16Or, hey, you, you've, you're through your chemo, you get to go home now. And the hugs and the tears of that. And that's, that's so much a part of the soda shop, again, because of its geographical community. But, but that's, that's you too. And that's Ms. Linda, and that's Craig, and that's, that's a culture. I mean, so you could easily say, are you buying something? You need to get, you know, right. This is, you know, no shirt, no shoes, no service, no public restrooms, but the arms wide open. Yeah. Come in, charge your phone. It's okay. Hey, look, get away from that. That's understanding humanity. It is humans. That's true hospitality. And that's, that's the essay that I'm writing now is about that in its effect on me, but also how I think we forgot how important that was during the pandemic when we couldn't go to restaurants, that restaurants s- serve this deeper purpose, or they, they, they have the capacity and the opportunity to serve this deeper purpose. Um, that it's not just a place to eat, that it is a place that's part of the community. And as we saw people coming back in, you felt that, you felt, man, it's great to be back eating in a restaurant and that they missed that important role that restaurants play in a true community sense. I think that's something that people, anybody who's in the hospitality industry can hear that right now, you saying that. And I think that we need to like, take that in, you know, I think that a lot of people are tired. A lot of people aren't okay, but genuine, true hospitality. We don't want to lose that. That's kind of one of the things that makes Nashville

01:21:21special. When I used to drive Uber, every time I drive somebody around and they would be like, you are so nice. Like, thank you. I like, I would say, they'd say, what's something we have to do? And if I'm downtown and go, yeah, I gotta see the Parthenon. What's the Parthenon? And then we'll go, I'm gonna go, I'll go drive you around the park real quick. You gotta see this. At least take a picture. And they would be like, why, why did you do that? And I'm like, I, I don't know, cause you're, you're here and you like to see that. And I felt some weird sense of responsibility that I want your perception of Nashville to be that it's not all about the dollar. It's not all about, well, if you don't have this, like, it's not a quid pro quo. It's a, no, it's cause that's the cool thing to do. I'd love for you to see that. I'm genuinely proud of it. And it's kind of cool that we have this here. I'll tell you a story. I had these two women that come in the other day, green nose girls, this is about four or five months ago. And they walked in the front door and I said, ladies, how are we doing today? Like, you know, and they were like, oh, we're, you know, we're okay. And I said, great. I said, is there a favorite place you have? And they said, just two. And I said, great. Is there a favorite place you have in the restaurant? Cause you know, the green house is like three, four different places in the restaurant. People like to sit and we don't sit on rotations. We see people where they want to be seated. Right? So they go, we've, we've never been here before. And I go, okay, fantastic. Do you want like a kind of a louder table? If you're in the bar, do you want like a cozy booth in the back? They go, cozy booth. And I said, no problem. And I take them to the table and I'm talking to them, just glad you guys are here and welcome and this and that. And so I sat down, they go, do you have a bar? And I was like, yeah, though we, yeah, we just bet that whole room right there.

01:22:56And they said, do you do like margaritas? And I go, absolutely. We got skinny margaritas, all the margaritas in the world. And so I said, let me get John, he'll take care of you. And John is a servant. He's great personality, just loving everything. He comes over and he takes care of them. And I checked back in them after they eat. And I said, well, ladies, how was everything? Like first experience, what'd you think? And they said, you know, it was really good. We really enjoyed. John's been so nice. And I said, well, you have to have our Heathburg Crunchy Pie. And they go, what? And I go, it's our signatures are it's on me. You gotta have your first time here. You gotta try this. And they're like, okay. Yeah. Bring him the dessert. And I come back maybe five minutes or they're done. And I said, well, what do we think? Like, was it good? And they said, you know what? We, we just want to say thank you. And I said, okay, like for what? They said, we buried my dad, her husband yesterday. And we've just been, it's a tough situation. Yeah. They said, we just needed an escape. And we don't know why we came here, but we saw this place and we thought, Hey, we'll just go in there. And this was one of the best experiences we've ever had. Yeah. It was just amazing. And it's that little moment right there, right there. That can hardly say it without crying. No, I moment where you go, I'm surprised I didn't tear up earlier.

01:24:16This is, this is what it is all about. All the bullshit that you put up with, right. It's for that moment. It is where you get to just go that that in my soul is what I'm here for. Yeah. That's it. No, that is. And that that's the hard thing because it can grind you down. And the cynic in me says each day is a, is a sliding scale of when you're dealing with the public every day, it's a sliding scale and you hope it ends up on the people are good and nice. And, and it doesn't always some days, the opposite happens. And it can really just wear you down and make you lose faith in humanity and go, why are your people this way? Why do people behave this way? And, but on balance, it's usually on the other end of the scale. But it that that takes a, a mental toll on people who work in the industry. Cause you never know how it's going to be that day and to keep yourself open for those moments to remember no matter how people are.

01:25:39I'm going to be present for the next guest that walks in through the door for that very reason. We are taking a very quick break to tell you about maintain IQ. The biggest frustrating thing for me in a building is when the small things don't get done. You walk into a building and you see light bulbs out. Why didn't they unlock the door? How come this didn't happen? And you want to go, well, first of all, you need to get it done, but like who, who didn't do that? Why is this not that? Why is this not done every day? And maintain IQ is the app that you need because it does it for you. It is a checklist is a digital checklist. You may have a clipboard right now that you walk around the building of what do you do after the week? It goes in the trash. This will keep records of every single time this gets done. This is not only a manager opening checklist, a manager mid checklist, a manager closing checklist. It's a line closing checklist. It is a server side work chart. It is everything. It is food temping. It works with Bluetooth thermometers. Oh, you temp food.

01:26:45It goes directly into here. It's a temperature log. It is a way to keep work orders in order. It does all of these things in an app. Everybody can sign in, fill out their closing duties. So that age old bartender coming in the morning, who didn't stock wine last night, you go to maintain IQ and you can see who the closing bartender was. And if they clicked that they did the work, the level of accountability for every single position you're building is amazing. So right now here's what you do. I want you to go to maintain IQ.com and I want you to give them a call. You need to talk to Will Jackson. He is the founder and CEO. He's the guy who answers the phone when you call. This is a brand new technology guys. You're going to love it. Six one. I'm sorry. So he's saying six one five seven one four four five seven forty four eighty one is his cell phone number. If you want to email him, it is will at maintain IQ.com guys. This is a game changer.

01:27:49You're going to thank me for it. Maintain IQ. And I finally, yeah. And I just, I had to shift my own paradigm to the point where I embrace the difficult tables now. That's my, you know, you may thrive on expo and all of that. I thrive on the most difficult table of people. That's your challenge. Yeah, I'm going to make them, I'm going to win them over. Yeah, I'm going to find a way to make this right. And I'm not going to win everyone, but I'm going to win a lot of them. And, and, and to me that that changed everything. I go, that's fun. That's because because those people will leave happier than when they came in. Yeah. Even if we screw up things every day. It happens all the time. You know, I remember this guy was so angry that his chicken tenders were taking so long. And I said, I just walked up and I go, well, you think our, our one hour chicken tenders are good. You need to try our two and a half hour chicken tenders.

01:29:01They are really worth the wait. And you know, it just a little humor disarmed him a bit and a little contrition. I'm sorry. How do we make this right? Owning, owning when we mess up. Yeah. When you start making excuses and well, we didn't have, I said at the beginning of the pandemic, I told my leadership team, I said, I never want one time. I don't care what it is. I never want to use the pandemic as an excuse. Right. We know it's here. Yeah. We know what we're dealing with stuff happens, but we've, we've, I never want to guess to hear me say, well, it's a pandemic. Yeah. Like I'm throwing my hands up like, what are you supposed to do? Like, well, we know it's a pandemic. So I make it happen. Jim, I could talk to you for hours and hours and hours. Likewise, we could do this. We can, we should do this more than once a month. What is like a random, oh, it's great to catch up with you. And it's so fun talking and talk about this crazy world we're in. It is. And we didn't touch on a million topics. No, I'd have, I'm looking at Pat Martin's book over there. What a great book. What a fantastic book. Yeah.

01:30:15It just had them in a couple of weeks ago. We talked about it. Yeah. I started reading that book and I, first of all, I saw life of fire and I was like, what is this? And then I went, oh, it's talking about the life of a fire and how you maintain it and cook with it. And I was like, oh, yes. And I read the whole thing and I was like, I am building a pit. Yeah, my backyard, right? Yeah, it is going to be epic. And I am I am so excited. I'm going to get some people. Will you come? I'll come. Yeah, do a cook with me. I gotta find the right crew, which is important. The whole you open the book to them. That's what I talked about in the interviews. I said, Yeah, I loved how you did it. Like you said, a road trip, you'd much rather do a road trip. Yeah, I can fly to Florida in two and a half hours, but hop in a car with some buddies, stopping at every little place on the way. That's half the adventure. Exactly. Because cooking a whole hog is a you get a bunch of guys. It's a 30 hour deal. Yeah, you can't do it alone. And he outlines every single thing you need, including I thought what the best part was the idiot friend. He's like, you're going to have the shot guy, which at one point was me. I will raise my hand. I was totally that guy. Because you have to have the shock is don't give him any responsibility that you're going to need. Let him carry the wood. You need all those personality archetypes.

01:31:34Yes. And, and, and yeah, that's great. And he wrote it in his words. It was it was like, as if you're talking to Pat Martin, reading it in his words. Nice shout out to you in the book to pictures of you in the book. And yeah, yeah, I was proud to be a part of that. So great. I just imagine reading that. And I was like, I want to be in a whole hog cook with him and his buddies hanging out shooting the shit. It's the best I would, you know, just maintaining the fire all day. And then finally, at the very end of it, getting to eat like just the whole fellowship of the thing. I was like, I love that he said it's like a road trip. Yeah, you've got it. So you've got to be ready for it. And it's an adventure. And at the end, the payoff is getting to your destination. We're eating the eating the food. And I just love because I love all of that. And I just I was motivated and excited. And he's a neat guy. Yes. Great guy. All right. We'll have more to talk about next time. Last thing I do is final final thoughts. So you as the guest get to take us out.

01:32:41Whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it, the mic is yours. Well, I think I'll just say it's really a privilege to work in this industry. It's a it's a privilege to take care of people. And what a kick in the pants it is to help preserve and maintain a tradition as old as the soda shop is. To keep a meat and three going in in the world capital of meat and threes is great. It's great fun. It's great to keep that going. It's great fun. It's great to keep that going. And it's a it's a privilege to as to be caretakers of a piece of Nashville history at a time when the city is changing so much. And and we we are we're honored with that responsibility. And come see us and get you some.

01:33:49Come get you some. See, I've been using the get you some for a while. And now Nelson's Greenbriar has like appropriated it in all of their have they really they're they just launched a new bourbon product. Yeah, Nelson Brothers, Charlie and Andy Nelson. Great guys. I love these guys. I love their stories. I love what they're doing. And I'm so happy for them. But now they've they've it's like, they're putting it on hats. They're they're hashtagging it and everything. It's get you some Greenbriar. And I'm gone. Okay, I'll see that one to them. Well, I will tell you congratulations for making the inaugural Nashville hot list. Thank you very much. I was so thrilled to be on there. And I, I, I called everyone in our organization and go, how did how did this happen? And no one knew. And it was just purely from your largesse. Do a great job. Your largesse. Yeah. And you guys I had lunch there a couple weeks ago, and it was so good. Just the whole atmosphere and the whole vibe. And you know, as I'm doing a new show for Visit Music City, at the end of that show every week, I'm going to give I'm going to I'm going to actually change it to 10 restaurants and the first five I'm going to say on the show, you have to visit the website to get the second five. There you go. But the inaugural Nashville hot list. Thank you very much. Play soda shot. That it means a lot. It really does. Well, it's sincerely well earned. And thanks for joining us today. Thank you, brother.

01:35:20All right, man. Big, big thank you to Jim Myers for joining the show. That was a good one. Hour and 35 minutes. We're sitting there right now, guys. Thanks for hanging in there. If you have listened to this whole thing, thanks for making it through all of the sponsorships. We've got some amazing people that want to support the show. And I want to continue to to ask you to go and check out their websites. I'm really excited about Go Tab and maintain IQ because these are new companies here in Nashville. And I want to see them take off. Literally, there's like one restaurant for each of them here in town. And the big avalanche of restaurants we're going to get to utilize this technology and when is going to be big. We got some big things coming. Nashville Restaurant Alliance. Yes, that is the next thing. So we're going to take all a bunch of companies and a bunch of restaurants together. We're going to offer discounts. We're going to go to bat for you. This is going to be a lot, a lot of fun. Locally owned and operated restaurants coming together. We're going to do a show about it here in just a couple of weeks. And I'm going to explain everything about it, what it is, what it means for you, what it means for everybody. But we are really excited to talk about the Nashville Restaurant Alliance. It's coming soon. So thank you guys for listening to again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everything. Listeners are amazing. Go out there and kill this week. Have a great week and hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.